As Dave Henson, Executive Director of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center in Sonoma County would say: "I am broke, not poor."
The money I have, I prefer to spend on food - on the life-affirming medicine that our edible planet sprouts forth.
I harbor few possessions, for the mall lost its appeal around the same time that I surpassed my girlish figure.
I can count on one hand the things I own, such as a '90 Volvo, purchased from a dear friend only three years ago, a few plates, bowls, and cups, and an assembled desk of oak purchased on the cheap from Ikea.
Mainly, I am a keeper of trinkets & mementos - of books filled to the brim with pages scrawled by both my hand and that of others as well as with the photographs of a life well lived.
What I treasure most is what cannot be taken away - the hard won experiences that have accompanied time, travels, education, and relationships.
I don't buy things ...
I prefer to spend quality time and to give of my presence.
Truly, this is a gift that can never be given away - the precious moments that we enjoy in each others' company, giving our ears & our hearts. The passionate beating, the tick tock of the here and now, is palpably felt and the memory is sealed - forever kept in the unique container that is this human body.
Presence.
(My friend Ben would say that this is all there is.)
Presents.
(Capitalism would have us believe that this is all there is.
Yet, as Frances Moore Lappe wrote in her book, Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet,
"The desire to consume is, fundamentally, an anti-social value.")
So, what does it mean to give of my presence?
When I am whole-heartedly listening - when my entire be-ing is attuned to this moment, now, to you and to whatever may unfold and give way. Presence is when I am choosing to ignore my very real and very human desire to plan ahead, to think about what I am going to say and how I am going to respond. Presence is when I respond less from a place of needing to protect myself (out of fear that I may get hurt and out of desire to control an outcome) and more from a willingness to expand, reach beyond, and grow into something far greater than I myself could have ever fathomed.
This is presence.
This is intimacy.
This is improvisation in action.
This is a living democracy.
This is relationship and this is dance.
Won't you join me???
